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Selection Sunday: Notre Dame women's basketball earns No. 3 seed in NCAA Tournament

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•03/16/25•

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A general view of the Purcell Pavilion between the third and fourth quarter of the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Louisville Cardinals. (Photo by Matt Cashore-Imagn Images)

Notre Dame has earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. The Fighting Irish learned their March Madness fate with the rest of the world during Sunday night’s selection show on ESPN.

Head coach Niele Ivey’s team, which huddled together upstairs at Purcell Pavilion in Club Naimoli to watch the show, will get its tournament run started against No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin on Friday, March 21. No. 6 seed Michigan and 11 seed Iowa State or Princeton, two first-four participants, will also be making their way to South Bend, Ind., for the first and second rounds of the tournament.

This is the third year in a row Purcell Pavilion will play host to the first two rounds of the tournament. Notre Dame hosted as a No. 2 seed in 2024. The Irish made it to the Sweet 16 by way of beating No. 15 seed Kent State and No. 7 seed Ole Miss. They lost to No. 3 seed Oregon State.

For Notre Dame to get past the Sweet 16 for the first time in the Ivey era, the Irish will likely have to defeat No. 2 seed TCU in Birmingham, Ala. That’s the most likely matchup on the first day of the second weekend of the tournament if chalk holds. Notre Dame is also in the same region as No. 1 seed Texas, which would set up a matchup between the Irish and Longhorns if the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds hold serve.

Nothing seems as set in stone for this Notre Dame team as the situation was in the early months of the season. The Fighting Irish knocked off three teams that were named No. 1 or No. 2 seeds Sunday in USC, Texas and UConn, but they’ve also lost three of their last five games entering the tournament. Those losses, though, came against respectable tournament teams in their own right in No. 2 seed NC State, No. 6 seed Florida State and No. 2 seed Duke.

Still, there is fear — even with some of the best players in the game in Hannah Hidalgo, Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron healthy and available — among supporters of the program that Notre Dame once again has a ceiling of a couple tournament wins before bowing out when the going gets tough away from South Bend.

The Irish were on their heels offensively in their last outing, a 61-56 loss to Duke in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. They’ve had a couple weeks to rest and reset since then, though, and this weekend’s home games will be an opportunity for them to regain the mojo that led to victories over some of the teams with the same attainable aspiration of their own — winning the national championship in Tampa, Fla., in early April.

Six wins in a row to get there. And now we know who those wins might have to come against. Game(s) on.

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